Building a backcourt
Indiana men’s basketball has secured a commitment from transfer portal guard Kanaan Carlyle, who played one season at Stanford before looking for a new home.
NEWS: Stanford transfer Kanaan Carlyle, a top-10 player in the portal, has committed to Indiana, @On3sports has learned.
The 6-3 freshman guard averaged 11.5 PPG this season. Former top-50 recruit. https://t.co/75Heg7apQ4 pic.twitter.com/nmsAwvgLTb
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) April 20, 2024
As a freshman, Carlyle averaged an impressive 11.5 points, 2.7 assists, and 2.7 rebounds per game. He started 16 of Stanford’s 23 games last season. One area of improvement for Carlyle going forward will be his turnover rate. As a freshman, he averaged 2.9 turnovers per game.
He mostly saw time at the point guard position at Stanford, but has a good enough shooting stroke to play the 2 spot alongside a playmaking point guard. He shot 32% from 3-point range on 4.3 attempts per game while shooting 77.6% from the free throw line.
If he can take a leap as a shooter and play off-ball a bit, this could be the shooting guard that Indiana has been waiting for. If he’s not tasked with being the primary initiator, it’s reasonable to expect his shooting numbers to go up while his turnovers go down.
After lacking backcourt talent for much of the last two years, Woodson has now added some intriguing pieces in Carlyle, Rice and Bryson Tucker.